Mary Jane Seacole (1805 – 14 May 1881), was a Jamaican-born woman of Scottish and Creole descent who set up a 'British Hotel' behind the lines during the Crimean War, which she described as "a mess-table and comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent officers," and provided succour for wounded servicemen on the battlefield. She was posthumously awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit in 1991. In 2004 she was voted the greatest black Briton.

She acquired knowledge of herbal medicine in the Caribbean. When the Crimean War broke out, she applied to the War Office to assist but was refused. She travelled independently and set up her hotel and assisted battlefield wounded. She became extremely popular among service personnel who raised money for her when she faced destitution after the war......info from Wiki.

Mary and Florence Nightingale (despite the fact that Flo gets dissed a bit in the song) saved a ton of lives, probably, in sum, as many as Salk and Fleming. Basic hygiene, pain management, and close patient monitoring - these were pretty foreign concepts until these two ladies did it.

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ossobuco

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Fri 28 Feb, 2014 07:37 pm

I'm dizzy with confusion since, as, as many now know, I can't see youtube. But I think this thread might not all be in jest, so I'll add a book I'm reading, having avoided it for probably twenty years as it sat on my ongoing I will read this sometime shelf.

It's a small paperback of the play, english translation of Beatrice Cenci, by Alberto Moravia. Said on the back cover that it is rather like a short novel, and so far it is.
Thing is, I remember from my past italophile reading disorder, that Beatrice Cenci was brutally murdered, I think by her family; don't remember which century or the circumstances. Will find out soon.

I've read Moravia before, I think it was a short story in italian class, and remember that because I liked the story so much, whatever it was. Thus, despite my not wanting to read the gory details of her death, I've taken the paperback up at last. Well, first of all, every page I turn tears away from the now fragile binding.. so there is inherent drama page to page no matter the story. Will the paperback split in two by the end?

So far so good - he is a good writer. Published in 1955, the book is almost easy read for clarity/spareness, at least up to whatever page I'm on.